Unknown Dark Clematis

It's apparently neither 'Polish Spirit' (anthers not tipped purple) nor 'Niobe' (not red enough).  Its so dark purple as to be nearly black.  It's been very easy to grow here.  I got it from a mail order clematis place in the Napa area that went out of business, so it may have been mislabeled because they were clearing everything out in a hurry at half price all sales final, and you got what you got.  What I got was a good one!

Pole Pruner

I find I have more rose pruning tools than shoes. In other words, I have my priorities straight. I have two pairs of Felcos, some fine snips for thin stems, two pairs of junky cheap secateurs I bought at a discount store, and two pole pruners. If you have a climbing rose, a pole pruner is an invaluable tool. Also called an extended reach or telescoping pruner, it's essentially secateurs-on-a-stick, for the fine work of deadheading and light cutting back.



There are other types of pole pruners. One is an electric model that is a small chainsaw on a stick. I have one of those specifically to cut my neighbor's jungle growth back to the fence line. There's also a pole pruner that operates via a pulled rope. These are for the lacing out of small tree limbs. They work on roses for the removal of larger canes, but they are too big and heavy for the fine, precise work of deadheading.



I've had one brand for six or seven years. It's good, but not great. This year I bought one at the local spring garden show that I like better. It's got the cut-and-hold feature that I wanted--you make your cut and the pruner allows you to hold on to the scrap and drop it into a nearby waste bucket. No picking up or raking up a pile, or losing the cutting in the plant. It rotates, so you can cut at any angle, which is handy when working in a thicket of stems. There is a plastic sleeve that slides up and down the pole. You hold the closer end in one hand then slide the tool up and down with your other hand on the plastic sleeve. The pole telescopes to different lengths, depending on how far you need to reach. The whole thing is light enough to use for a while without getting tired.



I'm happy with it. Once I became adept at using it, I am now able to pull hard-to-get-to weeds with it as well. This particular pruner was made by The Wildflower Seed Company. My post is NOT an ad for this company. I have no connection to this company other than I bought one of these (for full retail price, plus sales tax). I like this pruner a lot, but there are other brands out there that may work just as well. Do look for the cut-and-hold feature if you are a fanatic garden neatnik, because it makes clean up easier.

Is everyone tired yet of this Clematis?


What about this? Bored yet?


Or this mess...


Well, at least now you know why I like my pole pruner!

Aluminum Sulphate To Blue Up Hydrangeas

Hydrangea 'Endless Summer':


Apparently where pH is low, people want to pink up their blue Hydrangeas.  Here where pH is high, naturally we want to blue up our pink Hydrangeas.  Perhaps we should just switch gardens periodically according to our hydrangea desires.  But rather than going to all that trouble, I tried the recommended Aluminum sulphate to blue up my pink-flowering Hydrangeas.  Here are my results:



Yes, aluminum sulphate works, but like the old joke about voting, you have to do it early and often:  at least once a month, before and during bud formation.   I followed package directions, which meant two tablespoons in a gallon of water.  I had to agitate the water a while to get the aluminium sulphate to dissolve.   I gave my 30"x30" 'Endless Summer' hydrangea two treatments, on the first of April and the first of May.  This wasn't quite enough.  The first blooms to form are fairly pink, the following are fairly lavender, and the last, just beginning to open lately, are finally a fine sky blue.  So next year, I'll start on the first of March, or even February, and give 3 or 4 treatments.   Last year the plant was smaller and I think I started earlier, so the blueness was  better. 

My variegated lace cap hydrangea blued up with just one treatment--that and the 'Shooting Stars' variety seem easier to influence than 'Endless Summer'.  'Ayesha' and 'Miss Minnie Penny' remain stubbornly pink. 

Incidentally I should mention that Hydrangea 'Shooting Stars' wins my vote for Best Plant You Can Buy At Trader Joe's.  Their succulents are a little pricey, in my opinion.  Their orchids are good but I don't buy orchids any more.  The potted mini roses--I don't buy those either.   Their blooming bulbs are not a good value (are blooming bulbs ever a good value?).   Their florist hydrangeas are ok, but with the introduction of 'Endless Summer' and other reblooming varieties--why bother?  But 'Shooting Stars' has been a gem.  Beautiful plant, and now growing happily in my garden.  And it was something like $6.99--cheaper than you can get a hydrangea at a big box store.  So watch for that one. 

Hydrangea 'Shooting Stars'


So to close out this post, remember to be cautious with aluminum sulfate--too much can kill the plant.  Another approach is to apply soil sulphur, which I bought in the form of little yellow aspirin-like pellets.  Supposedly this takes longer, but is less dangerous, and just as effective.  I started applying soil sulphur to my blueberry plants, which are real acid soil lovers, and yes, they loved it.  More and healthier foliage was the result there.    Aluminum sulphate or soil sulphur--either way, easier than moving to Georgia.

Hydrangea 'Endless Summer':
Update May 29, 2012  I've switched from Aluminium sulphate to soil sulpher.  Soil sulphur needs less applications per year (once in late winter/early spring, once as the winter rains begin in November or December), which for a lazy gardener like myself is a plus.  It also seems more effective, and without the toxic effects that too much aluminum can produce.  I vote for soil sulphur.

Echinopsis 'Flying Saucer'

I will never own this plant, because of its nasty spines  (I realize this is rather ridiculous, coming from a gardener with 300 roses).  However, I can visit Echinopsis 'Flying Saucer' at the Huntington in San Marino, and hyperventilate over the beauty of the huge (6-8", 15-20 cm) flowers. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!  As gorgeous as any rose. 



On our last visit to the Huntingdon, the Aloes were blooming. Today it was the terrestrial bromiliads that were in flower: Dyckias and Puyas. The Cacti (including Echinopsis 'Flying Saucer') are just beginning.

Unknown cactus in bloom:






Puya venusta--blue flowers on pink stems!

Puyas are from Chile. 

Dyckia bloom spikes:

Dyckia are from South America, mostly Brazil, but they appear to like California just fine.

Rosa 'Laguna' (Kordes, 2004)

I planted it as a bare root from Pickering in January of 2008.  Until this year, almost no flowers, just green growth and a lot of it.  This climber has been fairly easy to train to a fence.  The canes remain flexible for months and months.  They have plenty of nasty thorns, making safety goggles and gloves mandatory.  Worth all the work?  Yes!   I have two 'Laguna', as a matter of fact.  The other is about to collapse its support. 



The foliage is glossy.  I have seen no Powdery Mildew at all on my two 'Laguna' plants.  The old foliage got some rust and anthracnose this winter, but the new foliage has been clean and clear of rust.  Kordes says it is fragrant, but not to my nose.  This doesn't mean it isn't fragrant.  I'm just saying my nose can't detect it.  It could be that it becomes more fragrant in the future.  It has a big job going from small plant to climbing monster in three years.  It may take a little extra time for the fragrance to switch on--I have had roses do that in this garden.  Or my nose is simply missing out. 







With Clematis 'Perle d'Azur':

Aeonium arboreum 'Zwartkop' : Air Roots

What I knew about Aeoniums was that when one of the rosettes blooms, that branch dies at the completion of flowering. 



The rest of the plant lives on.  What happens when the plant only has one rosette?  Does the whole plant die, then?  Well, I've had one of those bloom, cut off the remains of the bloom, and now it's sitting there doing nothing.   I'll see if it grows new rosettes or not. 


I also knew you can cut off the flowered part and the stem will sprout new multiple rosettes.



Now something I didn't know.  I had a large Aeonium arboreum 'Zwartkop'  leaning, leaning, leaning slowly over.  I had an empty pot handy, so I placed the pot so the Aeonium could lean on it for support.  Everyone was happy.  Time passed and the Aeonium kept growing and kept leaning.  The pot continued to work nicely as a support, so I left it. 



Air roots began to form on the stems of the Aeonium.  Then the other day I noticed that the thin-as-hair air roots had found their way into the soil, and were becoming substantial.  They are well on their way to being strong enough to support the leaning plant.

 

"Ah!" I thought, "I can take that support-pot away soon!"  Then I realized that one of the air-roots had found its way though a small hole in the pot bottom and was becoming one of the substantial soon-to-be-supports. 


I didn't know they did that! 

An amazing plant, Aeonium.

Plant vs. Plant

Geranium 'Jolly Bee' and a dwarf Shasta Daisy play well together (for now):


Plants battle other plants for resources like space, sunlight, and water.  It's not just a human or animal activity.  Our green friends do it too, both above and below ground. 

Fuchsia vs. Begonia: these two are evenly matched.  Who will win?


Mariana Maireana sedifolia vs. Euphorbia turicalii:  The Mariana Maireana is overwhelming the Euphorb.  (Also overwhelming  my spelling abilities.)


Billbergia 'Hallmark' vs. Mariana sedifolia:  Not only is the Mariana battling a Euphorb, it's going at it with a Billbergia, too:


Tagetes lemonii vs. Aloe marlothii.  The Tagetes appears to have won, but it is a short-lived plant that I prune back hard after bloom.  The Aloe will be back, and ultimately triumph. 

Clematis 'Perle d'Azur' vs. Rosa 'Laguna':  The battle doesn't always have to be unpleasant (for we observers!) 

Sawfly Larvae (Rose Slugs), A Rose Foliage Pest

Annoying little beasties, though not fatal to the rose, they merely ruin a lot of the foliage by chewing it full of holes, sometimes to the point of eating it all.   Various genus and species within the order Hymenoptera.  (This is science-talk for "There are a lot of different kinds.")  They are commonly called "Rose Slugs".   They are not slugs, however, but the larval form of Sawflies, a wasp-like flying insect. 

They are most often host-specific, meaning they go after one type of plant--there is one kind for elms, one for pecans, others for oaks, ash, many other plants, and unfortunately, at least a couple for roses.  One type has only one generation per year:  you get a few weeks of damage, then they vanish for another year. 

This garden seems to have a more annoying type, which produces multiple generations per year, and therefore a lot more damage.  I have best luck being alert for initial damage, and rubbing the backs of the affected leaves to kill the tiny, hard-to-see larvae.  If I can kill enough of the first generation, damage is significantly reduced.  In my less experienced gardening days, the thought of squishing little worms was repugnant, but now that I'm a hardened veteran, I squish away until my fingers are green.  What we do for our roses, eh? 





Note I mentioned nothing at all about insecticide.  I'm not fanatically "organic":  in a dire situation I'll break out an insecticide.  However, I have yet to face a dire situation with roses in this garden.  Even a lot of Rose Slug damage won't kill the plant, and small birds, ladybug larvae, and lacewing larvae do appear to eat the pests.  Soon enough the rose grows new foliage that covers the damaged leaves.   In weighing the negatives of insecticide vs. the negatives of Rose Slug damage, the insecticide negatives far outweigh the Rose Slug negatives.  Hence, green gooey fingers.  But they wash off. 

Rosa 'Lemon Spice'

'Lemon Spice' is an older cultivar (Swim and Armstrong, 1966).  There have undoubtedly been better yellow hybrid teas introduced since then, but probably not better powerfully fragrant yellow hybrid teas.   The name describes the fragrance, spicy citrus, which is the great virtue of this rose.  The color is delicate rather than a pure bright chrome- or canary yellow.  Vigor could be a little better, and the foliage is somewhat sparse, though rust and mildew resistance are far above average (in my garden), quite impressive for an older HT.  The form is so-so, and petal count could be higher, but fragrance is the star here, and stellar it is. 

Yucca linearifolia

This Yucca species was first collected from the wild in the 1980s.  It was thought to be a variant of Y. rostrata, but has recently been identified as a distinct species.  The foliage is narrower and more succulent than that of Y. rostrata.  Seed production has been rare, so it has been introduced into commerce via tissue culture. 

In my garden it has grow considerably albeit slowly, but still measures at a dainty 18".  Eventually it should form a short trunk.  The plant's overall symmetry and narrow foliage is quite lovely, and maintenance required has been zero. 

Yucca linearfolia with Dyckia 'Dark Star':


Update: here it is a year and a half later, December 2012: